Gardening with Gail

— by Gail McIlroy

Following the most severe winter in “like forever” we are embracing spring wearing rubber boots, savouring lots of rain, warm sunshine and lots of visitors!

Wonder bulbs popping through the earth, red squirrels always present, along with the chipmunks, all of whom are busily teaching their young. The sound of the birds is such a welcome treat. 

This is a great time to engage with your garden friends and groups along with adding beautiful thoughts and plants to your community!

It’s the time of year to plant your vegetable gardens, including space for whatever you want to grow. Although some people find last year’s kale is still edible, it’s really best to clean out last year’s growth and make space for the new. 

Leave corn rooting in the ground and plant around it. The corn root will stabilize the soil. Chop corn and sunflower off at the roots. These generous biologically covered roots are such a gift for the soil. When you plant around them, they’ll slowly decompose, adding organic matter. Roughly chop the stalks and pile them on the edge of your veggie matter in a year.

Reorganize the productive cucumber or zucchini vines, and move them to the side of this area. They can later be used for rough mulch for the vegetables you’ll plant, three or four weeks later. Geographically our planting in this area is about two weeks later then southern Ontario, including the western areas of St. Catharines and Niagara.

Clean out all of the productive crops. This provides more sunlight, and room for new seedlings but keeping in mind, this will also benefit the new plants. Snap off gooey mildewy leaves, pushing them into your compost pile. 

Direct sow: green crops such as phacelia, lupin, mustard daikon, broadbeans, or oats. Corn salad, miner’s lettuce, coriander, rocket.

Tray sow: glove artichokes, spring onions, red or brown onions.

Peas can be sowed into plug trays or toilet rolls.

Direct or Tray Sow: Broad-beans.

Spinach, coriander, and beetroot can be direct sown if you have a greenhouse. These will catch and grow outside, they will grow faster and sweeter in the warmth.

Sweet peas and salad greens are best planted in the greenhouse or a sunny windowsill.

If you prefer to plant outside, celery, kale, silverbeet, perpetual beet, and chard are happy with that.

In general, make sure there is good drainage. After forming the drainage take the extra waste to the pile for composting.

This is a wonderful time of the year to sit and enjoy all of your efforts. The major work has been completed, as gardening enthusiasts we seldom think to sit back and enjoy what we have accomplished! The black flies should have eased up by now, just the odd mosquito still hanging around.

I also found this picture that I decided to share with you, with all of the work with the dead trees around why not take advantage and build something like this with the stumps we all have around.

I read an interesting article today about a person who collects rainwater to water her plants with. To avoid the mosquitoes, she buys the small feeder goldfish and places them in the rain barrel and the fish feed off the bugs that get into the open barrel. The writer indicated this method worked beautifully!

Enjoy this productive season! Happy gardening!

(Bentley is in a “pouty mood” and tired of watching me go in and on about the joy of gardening!)